Posts Tagged cnn

Apple CEO Tim Cook had some words to say in a column on The Wall Street Journal. CNN reports that Tim Cook is pressing for the successful passage of a federal law that protects workers from discrimination based on their sexual orientation. “It’s a good business practice,” Cook said, as it’s always best for employees to be able to be themselves – their best selves – in order to give their greatest effort in the workplace. “For too long, too many people have had to hide that part of their identity in the workplace,” said Cook.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, known as ENDA, needs 60 votes in the Senate today to avoid being subject to a filibuster.

CNN, one of the world’s leading news organizations, today announced that it has launched its official iPad app. The new app will present CNN’s top stories, as well as blogs, videos and other articles from around the news network. Users can also share articles via Facebook and Twitter and watch live video of major world events as they happen.

“High quality, world-class journalism is what CNN does best, whether live breaking news, hard-hitting interviews or in-depth investigations, and our iPad app presents that content to the world in a wholly new way,” said KC Estenson, senior vice president and general manager of CNN.com. “This app harnesses the best of what the iPad offers by leveraging striking photos and videos; elegant, multi-touch navigation; and the ability to share content with your friends via social media.”

“One of the things about the app that excites us most is the ability to serve the news needs of iPad users while also exposing them to original, enterprise content from CNN that will surprise and delight them,” added Louis Gump, vice president of CNN Mobile. “The CNN App was built from the ground up with our consumers in mind, and we are proud of the new CNN experience we’ve created for the device.”

To celebrate the launch of the iPad app CNN has also announced that the iPhone and iPod versions are now free, and that the international edition has received an update which will allow users to watch live video of breaking news. So ultimately today is a big day for news junkies no matter how you slice it.

With so many news apps out there it will be interesting to see which way users lean and if any one service emerges as a dominant player in the app space. One thing’s for sure though, with the BBC, NY Times, CNN and tons of others all vying for your attention, there’s basically no way for anyone with an iPad to ever feel like they’re out of the loop on what’s going on in the world.

CNN recently held a panel discussion about mobile tech and its role in journalism—for both consumers and journalists. The panelists made some good points about how mobile smartphones like the iPhone have created a whole new breed of journalism. You can watch the videos (embedded below) if you want, but I’m going to cover some of their points here.

Most discussed was the omnipresence of camera phones and smartphones, which makes everyone a potential “citizen journalist.” As one of the panelists put it, “We used to call them innocent bystanders. Or victims.” Now, those “bystanders” can broadcast news—just look at the Iranian elections and Twitter. Or one of the panelists, who was able to broadcast a report from his iPhone even while the police herded the journalists away at the G20 conference.

However, the panel noted that while anyone can shoot video, good footage requires skill. “It’s all about the storytelling,” one panelist noted. Mobile technology is a means, not an end—for journalists, it’s another tool. Mobile reports co-exist with traditional ones.

The integrity of mobile-generated content is also a concern; technology makes manipulation easy. And sifting through masses of raw content to find quality is still difficult, they noted.

On the consumer side, mobile tech was praised for encouraging people to access the news every day. Think news apps for iPhone.

So what does this mean for iOS?

Each and every iPhone owner is a potential “citizen journalist:” take a video, upload it to YouTube, and boom. Throw in iMovie, and you can even make a decent “report.”

One thing that I found interesting was a criticism of current iPad news apps. iPhone news apps are OK, but iPad news apps were criticized for a lack of innovation. One panelist asked about showing local news based on the iPad’s Location Services, or showing content relative to the specific user. We’re missing that now—most iPad apps simply copy the print versions.

At any rate, it was interesting to hear industry heads and journalists themselves talk about how mobile has changed their industry. More changes are in order, certainly—and smartphones, like the iPhone, are the primary impetus.

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